Saturday, April 30, 2011

We don't know for certain, but this purge of online organising groups could be linked to the wider crackdown on protest by authorities in Britain.

It is unclear why the accounts have been affected. Facebook declined to issue a statement.

However a spokesman said: "The reason all of these profiles came down at once is simple. Facebook's security tools constantly work to maintain our real name culture by removing profiles that are 'fake' or don't belong to an individual person, but rather a campaign, an animal, or an organisation."

"The Met Police did not ask Facebook to take down this content."

The timing and the organisations affected by the the Facebook closures suggest another explanation which our readers will have no difficulty in guessing. Have you heard of the term plausible deniability it seems that Facebook employed it.

However check the Facebook Terms and Conditions has this might be come a new terrain in the battle for freedom on the internet if 29th April shutdown is anything to go by.http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf

Set in the present time the story is narrated by a historical figure, Gerrard Winstanley, an important writer and figure head for the Diggers movement. The story ghosts a past struggle against the enclosure of common land through a series of flashbacks. The film explores how our relationship to land and ownership has not changed since the Diggers claim that England is a 'common treasury for all'

Thousands of Workers Will Converge on Jantar‐Mantar to Present Their Charter of Demands on the Occasion of 125th Anniversary of May Day

New Delhi, 26 April. On the occasion of 125th anniversary of May Day (1 May, 2011), workers from several parts of the country will knock on the doors of the parliament in Delhi, along with their charter of demands signed by thousands of workers across the country. Workers mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Chhattisgarh will participate in the demonstration.

The significance of this movement is that the workers are presenting their demands under the combined banner of the 'Workers' Charter Movement' against the practice of several unions and organisations having their own agenda which separately, divides the workers and weakens their struggle. Therefore, the 'Workers' Charter Movement' is starting a long 'Workers' Satyagrah' by presenting the common demands of the whole working class to the government.

Some independent labour organisations and unions active in different parts of the country and a labour journal have taken the initiative to draft the charter and take it to the workers and a few labour assemblies (Mazdoor Panchayats) also aided in this process, but this movement is not organised under the banner of any union, organisation or political party. It aims to transform this into a unified struggle of the entire working class of the country. This movement is intended to run in several phases and cycles. A symbolic start is being made on the occasion of the 125th anniversarry of the historic 'May Day'.

Since the past few months, teams of workers and activists have been visiting industrial areas, workers' colonies, workers' lodges, lanes and by lanes in the slums as well as among rural workers to educate them about the charter and collect their signatures. Night meetings are held and street meetings and cultural shows are organised to popularise the charter in several areas.

The charter contains 26 categories of demands of industrial and rural workers which represent almost all major needs of the working class of India and also give expression to their political demands. The main demands include: enforcing an 8 hours working day, stop forced overtime, increase minimum wage to Rs. 11,000 per month, abolish contract system, make proper safety arrangements in factories and payment of proper compensation in case of accidents, ensure equal rights to women workers, safeguard interests of migrant workers, registration of all domestic and independent daily wage workers and construction workers, put an end to the corruption in the labour departments and effective implementation and review of labour laws.

The movement says that the country today is agitated on the issue of corruption but the biggest corruption is that which constantly denies the workers the fruits of their labour. No opposition to corruption can be successful if it is not accompanied by the fight against this legal and illegal plunder of labour power. There can be no real justice when 80% of the population lives in continuous denial of their basic rights.

The real benefitters of the development in the two decades of liberalisation and privatisation have been the top 15% of the population while the disparity between the rich and poor has disgustingly widened. The 20 years of rapid economic development have pushed the workers into further misery. The worst lot among these is the rural and urban workers of the unorganised sector and the vast majority of unorganised workers in the organised sector.

Whatever constitutional and democratic rights the workers had gained through several struggles and sacrifices have been snatched away. The old labour laws are insufficient and are hardly implemented. Whatever new laws are introduced by the government, are either mostly ineffective, or pro‐capitalist. The legal process in the labour courts is so complex and lengthy that a poor labourer hardly has any chance to get justice out of it. The number of labour deptt. offices including the officers and the staff is vastly inadequate and instead of enforcing the labour laws, this department acts as an agent of the industry owners in most of the cases. Even the number of labour courts and industrial tribunals is enormously less than needed. The fundamental right to live has become meaningless for the working masses of India. Civil liberties and democratic rights have become empty words for them.

Basic rights such as minimum wages, proper limit of working hours, ESI, job card etc. are not available to more than 90% of the industrial and rural workers of India. Even after working for 12‐14 hours at a stretch in hellish, unhygienic and hazardous conditions they can hardly fulfill their basic needs. Despite the severe price‐rise, most of the factory workers are paid a paltry sum, ranging between 1800 to 4500 rupees per month. In case of death or injury due to the accidents occurring frequently in the workplaces, they are hardly compensated and often not even provided with basic medication, and in many cases sacked from the job. Most of the workers are contract, casual, wage and piece‐rate labourers and almost every labour law is brazenly flouted by the owners.

In this situation, the working people of India want to let the parliament and Government of India know that they are not ready to bear any more injustice and atrocities. The workers have begun a long campaign to regain their rights and justice. As the first step, a workers charter is being presented to the people’s representatives and to the government demanding a life of dignity, democratic and constitutional rights along with their fair share in the progress of the country.

— for, Convening Committee

Workers' Charter Movement ‐ 2011

For further information, please contact:

Abhinav, Ph: 9999379381, Email: aandolan2011@gmail.com

Satyam, Ph: 9910462009, Email: satyamvarma@gmail.com

For an English translation of the Workers' Charter and more info, please visit:

This year’s May Day comes at a time of unprecedented protests and uprisings all around the world. In the Arab world and Persian Gulf, the youth, the proletarians and the broad masses took to the streets and toppled or tried to topple, one after the other, the dictatorial regimes subservient to imperialism.

In the heart of the imperialist countries, working class struggles, general strikes, rebellions of students and youth are opposing the policy of reactionary governments and the development of a modern fascism aimed at shifting the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the masses, bringing layoffs, job insecurity, intensification of exploitation and attacks on education, health care and basic social services.

Struggles and rebellions are ranging from China to the US, from Russia to Latin America. Particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq, imperialism, mainly U.S. imperialism, is suffering blows that prevent it from realizing its plans of occupation, invasion and geo-strategic control on important areas of the world. Its plans to sanctify Zionist occupation in Palestine through sell-out leaders have been checked.

People's wars are the strategic reference for the proletarians and peoples of the world. The people's war in India successfully withstands unprecedented attacks by the enemy and is able to expand and advance. The people's war in Peru persists and recuperates. The people’s war in the Philippines advances. In Turkey, revolutionary struggles led by the Maoists advance along the people’s war strategy. In other countries of South Asia it is being prepared, for initiations and new advances.

In Nepal, 10 years of people’s war have created the conditions for the advancement of Nepali revolution. This revolution is now at a complex crossroads and must be supported against the counter-revolution waged by internal and external enemies as well as against the reformists who try to undermine it from within.

The protracted people’s war is necessary to defeat the enemy both in countries oppressed by imperialism and the imperialist countries themselves, according their own specificities. It represents a new and sharpening phase of the class struggle that expresses the revolutionary aspirations of the proletariat and the world peoples.

All this indicates that the main contradiction at the world level is that between imperialism and oppressed people, while the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and as well as inter-imperialist contradictions are sharpening. In the context of the spreading crisis, the revolution emerges more and more clearly as being the main trend in the current world.

The economic crisis of imperialism, far from being resolved, widens and deepens according to the laws of uneven development and as a result of the contention on theworld market and the tendency towards a maximal extortion of surplus value. The “financialization” of the economy— the main immediate cause of the crisis — tends to reject any control. The use of surpluses from China’s, India’s and Brazil’s economies can’t ensure more than a temporary recovery, which opens the door to new and even more distressing crisis.

The struggling and uprising proletarians and popular masses demand the building of revolutionary parties at the height of the current clash of classes; and that process of organization is developing. We need communist parties based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism able to lead the class struggle in all fields and aimed at seizing the political power without which it is not possible for the proletarians to overthrow the capitalist and imperialist system. Maoist Communists strive to answer this need for a scientific and decided leadership for the proletarian class struggle, by fighting all kinds of revisionist, reformist and dogmatist deviations.

Our class can rely on the huge amount of experience through 140 years of struggles and revolutions, from the birth of the Glorious Paris Commune through the peaks of the October Revolution, the Chinese revolution and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. We must learn from both our victories and defeats, as well as from our mistakes.

Within that wave of struggles, uprisings and people’s wars, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communists should put proletarian internationalism into practice in order to unite proletarian struggles and those of the oppressed peoples against imperialism in crisis and remain firmly united with masse, as they make history.

Communists must achieve a new unity of the international communist movement based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and build the international organization that we need today.

Friday, April 29, 2011

The Royal Wedding has provided cover for serious attack on civil liberties in the United Kingdom.

The morning of 29th April 2011 began with an attack on the people of Bristol Stoke Crofts and has the day continued it has seen section 60 arrests of protestors in London at the Royal Wedding.

In particular the Anti-Cuts protest organisations have also been targeted for closure of Facebook accounts to undermine May Day protest activity.

It is important that May Day 2011 is turned into a counter attack and this attack on freedom of expression by the British State is exposed and right to protest defended.

The British State is trying to instil fear into the May Day protestors but has the North African and Middle East Rebellions have shown people lose their fear when faced with blatant injustice and the only people that will live in fear is the rich elites who live at the expense of the people. By attacking the people's democratic rights their have given notice that their days are numbered.

I am a member of the council of the naval mutiny
And no traitor to my conscience having done my sworn duty
These are my last words before the scaffold
and I charge you all to hear
How a wretched British sailor became a citizen mutineer
Pressed into service to carry powder I was
loyal to the crack of the whip
If I starved on the streets of Bristol, I
starved worse on a British ship
Red is the colour of the new republic
Blue is the colour of the sea
White is the colour of my innocence
Not surrender to your mercy
I was woken from my misery by the words of Thomas Paine
On my barren soil they fell like the sweetest drops of rain
Red is the colour of the new republic
Blue is the colour of the sea
White is the colour of my innocence

Not surrender to your mercy
So in the spring of the year we took the fleet
Every cask and cannon and compass sheet
And we flew a Jacobin flag to give us heart
While Pitt stood helpless we were waiting for Bonaparte
Red is the colour of the new republic
Blue is the colour of the sea
White is the colour of my innocence
Not surrender to your mercy
All you soldiers, all you sailors, all you labourers of the land
All you beggars, all you builders, all
you come here to watch me hang
To the masters we are the rabble, we are the 'swinish multitude'
But we can re-arrange the colours of the
red and the white and the blue
Red is the colour of the new republic
Blue is the colour of the sea
White is the colour of my innocence
Not surrender to your mercy
Red is the colour of the new republic
Blue is the colour of the sea
White is the colour of my innocence
Not surrender to your mercy

"England is a Prison; the variety of subtilties in the Laws preserved by the Sword, are bolts, bars, and doors of the prison; the Lawyers are Jaylors, and poor men are the prisoners; for let a man fall into the hands of any from the Bailiffe to the Judge, and he is either undone, or wearie of his life."

Police threw a section 60 cordon around the whole of the Royal weddingzone on Friday morning to respond to anarchists masking up at a small gathering in Soho Square in central London.

The section 60 order allows police officers to stop and search anyone without discretion. The police also imposed section 60a, which gives them the power to remove masks and balaclavas from anyone within the area.

The Yard said they made the decision after individuals were seen masking up in Soho Square where a group of anarchists had gathered.

At least one arrest was made after a clash in Soho Square between plainclothes officers and one individual after he started singing "we all live in a fascist regime" to the tune of We All Live in a Yellow Submarine.

By 11.45am police said 18 arrests had been made across the Royal Wedding exclusion zone. These included one for criminal damage.

The arrests took place in and just outside the exclusion zone around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.

Scotland Yard said two people were arrested for being drunk and disorderly, one for assault, one for possessing an offensive weapon, two for breach of the peace, two for theft.

The biggest security operation in the Metropolitan police's recent history has seen the deployment of 5,000 officers, including a 1,000-strong rapid-response team to react to any criminality, direct action or extremist threats inside and outside the exclusion zone.

In pre-emptive action on Wednesday and Thursday officers from the Met raided five squats in London and one in Hove, arresting 21 people.

All were released and bailed with conditions that bar them from the City of Westminster on Friday.

On Thursday night Cambridgeshire police arrested Charlie Veitch, a self confessed anarchist, for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and breach of the peace.

It is understood police believed Veitch was planning to cause disruption in Soho Square, central London.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the Scotland Yard commissioner, said his force was prepared for every eventuality.

Asked about the raids on the squats, he said the public would expect the police to carry out their job.

Paul Joseph Watson

We received the following email from Charlie Veitch’s girlfriend. Veitch, who many of you will know as the leader of the Love Police activist group, has been arrested by British police in a pre-crime raid on charges of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance” at tomorrow’s Royal Wedding. Veitch was in contact with police before the arrest, reassuring them that his plans were completely peaceful and merely centered around voicing his free speech, which evidently no longer exists as a human right in the United Kingdom.

Please call the number listed in the email below and politely demand that Veitch be released. Veitch is being held at Cambridge Parkside Station.

In a You Tube video posted earlier this week, Veitch warned that he was under surveillance and that he was being followed around London.

Demonstrators picketed the Moroccan Embassy in London in protest against the mass detentions of pro-democracy demonstrators in Morocco. The slogans 'Free Moroccan Students', 'Stop Torture of Students' and 'Free All Political Prisoners' were displayed.

The diplomats inside the Embassy were addressed through a megaphone. The demand for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Morocco was put forward. The diplomats were warned that the days of the King's repressive regime are numbered and that they should consider whether to go on serving this autocratic dictator.

Tuesday 26 April 2011: A US Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, Philadelphia, USA ordered a new sentencing hearing for Mumia Abu-Jamal., a former Black Panther who has languished on death row for nearly 30 years, must have a new sentencing hearing within the next six months.
They set aside Abu-Jamal's death sentence over procedural irregularities during his trial, finding that the jury mistakenly had been led to believe that it could not consider mitigating factors against a death sentence.

Abu-Jamal has always stated his innocence and campaigners in UK, France, Africa, US and internationally are actively calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

Last Saturday the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Defense Campaign UK held a march and rally in Brixton, London to mark Mumia’s 58th birthday.

Notes for Editors:
Mumia was arrested during the early morning hours of 9 December 1981, in Philadelphia for the alleged murder of a police officer. A former member of the Black Panther Party and award winning journalist outspoken in his condemnation of police corruption and brutality, Mumia had attracted hostile attention of police and city authorities before his arrest.

Despite a plea of ‘Not Guilty’, Mumia was tried in 1982 and sentenced to death the following year. The trial was a tragic example of everything that can go wrong in a capital case. The proceedings were marked by racism, inept legal representation, and a bigoted and prejudiced judge. The defendant was too poor to hire a good lawyer, investigator, or essential forensic experts in such fields as ballistics and pathology. Amnesty International stated proceedings did not meet international standards for a fair trial.

At the time of his arrest, Mumia was already known as the "Voice of the Voiceless" for speaking on behalf of the dispossessed and against government misconduct and speaking out against racism and police corruption. He was President of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black Journalists.Today his weekly writings and radio commentaries from prison reach people in many countries. Mumia Abu Jamal has always said his is not a special case. There are more than 20,000 people facing the death penalty worldwide. Opponents of the state too often face disappearances and extra-judicial killing. Imprisonment of political opponents to the state has led to miscarriages of justice here as well as in the US. Poverty and race are real contributory factors in the imprisonment and inhuman treatment of prisoners in our goals. Our campaign takes place in the context of deaths in police custody. Recent examples include Ian Tomlinson and Smiley Culture.

Other information: An online petition for President Barack Obama ‘Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty’, initially in 10 languages (Swahili and Turkish have since been added) has been signed by over 22,000 people from around the globe. Signatories include Bishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize); Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature); Danielle Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Colin Firth (Academy Award Best-Actor nominee), Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher and author); Ed Asner (actor); Elliott Gould (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); and Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino); Robert Meeropol (son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953); members of the European Parliament; members of the German

Mumia is now being defended by Judy Ritter Esq. in association with the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund. Judy Ritter Esq. has represented Mumia Abu Jamal since 2003.

(New York, NY) --The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has unanimously declared that Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence is unconstitutional.

In today’s decision, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its 2008 finding that Mr. Abu-Jamal’s sentencing jury was misled about the process for considering evidence supporting a life sentence. The Court found that, in violation of the United States Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Mills v. Maryland, the jury was improperly led to believe that that it could only consider unanimously agreed upon evidence favoring a life verdict. This mistake rendered Mr. Abu-Jamal’s death sentence fundamentally unfair. The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and Professor Judy Ritter of Widener Law School represent Mr. Abu-Jamal in this appeal of his 1982 conviction and death sentence for the murder of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“This decision marks an important step forward in the struggle to correct the mistakes of an unfortunate chapter in Pennsylvania history,” said John Payton, Director-Counsel of LDF. “Again acknowledging the existence of clear constitutional error in Mr. Abu-Jamal’s trial, the Court of Appeals’ decision enhances confidence in the criminal justice system and helps to relegate the kind of unfairness on which this death sentence rested to the distant past.”

Prof. Ritter noted that, “Pennsylvania long ago abandoned the confusing and misleading instructions and verdict slip that were relied on in Mr. Abu-Jamal’s trial in order to prevent unfair and unjust death sentences. Courts now use clear and unambiguous language to advise sentencing juries about their ability to consider evidence that favors a life verdict. Mr. Abu-Jamal is entitled to no less constitutional protection.”

Mr. Abu-Jamal he has been on death row in Pennsylvania for 29 years.

###

ABOUT LDF

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is America's premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 70 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing Tuesday death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, without overturning the guilty verdict of the man who has become a cause celebre for death penalty opponents.

The court in Pennsylvania ruled that Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who has languished on death row for nearly 30 years, must have a new sentencing hearing within the next six months.

The 57-year-old African American was sentenced to death in 1982 after being found guilty in the murder of a white policeman -- a crime he has always denied committing.

The same court that issued Tuesday's ruling suspended Abu-Jamal's death penalty sentence in 2008, leading to three years of court challenges that including an intervention by the US Supreme Court.

The Pennsylvania appeals court set aside Abu-Jamal's death sentence over procedural irregularities during his trial, finding that the jury mistakenly had been led to believe that it could not consider mitigating factors against a death sentence.

Abu-Jamal and his supporters claim that the guilty verdict against him was predetermined because he was an African-American and a member of the radical leftist Black Panthers movement.

A writer and president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest, he has continued to write from death row.

Democracy and Class Struggle thank Kasama and Revolution in South Asia for making this interview available by Comrade Biplap who is on the standing committee of the Maoist party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

In June of 2010, he spoke with a revolutionary journalist about his belief that it is now possible to move ahead, winning countrywide power by overthrowing the government.

The current situation is that of 22nd April 2011 two different documents are presented in the running central committee meeting of UCPN-Maoist. Party Chairman Prachanda and Senior Vice-Chairman Kiran presented two different written documents in the CC meeting.

Party spokes person Dinanath Sharma has said that Comrade Kiran presented the different political document by disagreeing with the document given emphasis on peace and constitution that had been presented by Prachanda.

CASABLANCA, Morocco Thousands took to the streets of Morocco on Sunday in peaceful demonstrations to demand sweeping reforms and an end to political detention, the third day of mass protests since they began in February.

Demonstrations in Casablanca, Fes, Rabat and Marrakech followed last month’s pledge by King Mohammed VI to introduce more liberties, with some protesters demanding the dissolution of the government and greater involvement in rewriting the constitution.

“I am marching because we are not a free people,” said Madmad Thahani, a 20-year-old student in Casablanca. “We demand the dissolution of the committee appointed by the King because its members weren’t chosen by the people.”

Some 10,000 people joined the protest in Casablanca, the largest city in one of the West's staunchest Arab allies. Marchers in the capital Rabat also denounced corruption and torture as well as unemployment, which is very high among youths.

Video of Demonstration in Tangiers on 17th April 2011

SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF MOROCCO FOR DEMOCRACY - SUPPORT DEMONSTRATION AT MOROCCAN EMBASSY IN LONDON ON 27TH APRIL - 5.00pm - 6.30pm calling for release of all political prisoners in Morocco

Join the Campaign to Free Moroccan Students Now !freemoroccanstudents@gmail.com

There were some actions in other parts of Ireland but, except for the attack on the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at Ashbourne, County Meath, they were minor.

The Rising was suppressed after seven days of fighting, and its leaders were court-martialled and executed, but it succeeded in bringing physical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics.